Ok, so, yeah.. it's been a while. Sorry about that! But this a rather long chapter, and one that was really hard to write. Grrr. I hate damn writer's block. I'll try and make the wait a little shorter between this and the next chapter, though I can't promise or guarantee any thing. Sorry! Oh, and I apologize for the futile attempt at humour at the beginning- I tried to lighten this chapter as the next few will probably be a bit more dramatic and angsty.

Enjoy:)

"Gracie? Who's Gracie?" A voice mumbled from under the bed clothes. Eric's brow knitted together, perplexed by this odd response. Before he could reply, a head emerged at the top of the bed, and Eric was surprised to see the confused face of a seventy something woman peering at him from the other side of the room, as opposed to the rather more beautiful face of Gracie Hart. The old woman cocked her head slightly at him, her eyes still bleary from sleep. "I think you might have the wrong room, sonny." She said apologetically. He felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment, and he backed out of the room as quickly as possible, stuttering some fractured excuse that neither he nor the woman heard or understood.

He pulled the white door closed behind him, and buried his red face in his hands, admonishing himself for his stupid mistake. He wondered how he made such an idiotic mistake, and kicked himself when he looked up at the numbers on the door and saw that in his rush to see Gracie he had not seen that this was room 345, not the 445 that Gracie was in.

He gathered himself together, and strode off down the corridor towards the staircase, taking the steps three at a time, not necessarily in a huge rush to see Gracie, but more because he guessed that sooner or later his nerve would give out, and he was slouch home to collapse in his apartment, not having the guts to at least talk to Gracie in earnest.

When he finally reached the door to Gracie's actual room, he found a nurse just leaving, closing the door quietly. She turned back round and started slightly when she saw Eric standing close, his breathing erratic and fidgeting as he waited to go in. She frowned at him sternly, glancing down at her watch and back up at him, her finely plucked eyebrow raised at him. He took the hint and looked down at his own watch, and realized with groan that it was gone nine o'clock.

"Visiting hours finished more than two hours ago, Sir." The nurse informed him primly, and he looked at her quizzically,

"But, when Miss Hart woke up we were allowed in to see her, and that can't have been more than an hour ago!" He protested. Her eyes darkened and her frown pulled tighter, and Eric swallowed nervously, suddenly fearful of this woman in front of him.

"Never the less, Sir, you must understand that those were unusual circumstances, what with Miss Hart's condition."

"But surely, five more minutes now wouldn't make any difference, considering that we've already been to see her after hours anyway." Eric tried to reason, but the woman just shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Sir, but I'm afraid that the Doctor's already given Miss Hart some medication that should have her off to sleep within the next ten minutes. She needs her rest."

"Can't I please just go in for ten minutes until she's asleep then?" Eric pleaded, "I need to talk to her about something really urgent." He saw the Nurse's expression relaxing slightly. "Please. I really need to talk to her." He crossed his fingers, hoping that even if this didn't work, he could still pull the old excuse of

'Eric Matthews, FBI.'

However, there was obviously no need, as the woman sighed, but nodded, jerking her head towards the door.

"Fine. But I'll be waiting here, and only ten minutes, do you hear me? Otherwise I'll have security haul you out of here faster than you can flash that badge of yours at me." Seeing his raised eyebrow, she laughed. "I don't miss a thing, me. I saw you persuading Nurse Green to let you in earlier." He chuckled, but dodged past her into the room, pulling the door shut behind him.

Obviously a little too loudly, according to the moan from the bed, as the bang from the door hitting the frame resonated around the cold, quiet room. His eyes were drawn to the moaner, and saw that Gracie's eyes were closed and her pale features looked peaceful for once in her life.

She was asleep.

He sighed with disappointment, turning to leave again, but suddenly he heard her breathe something in her sleep.

"Eric..." She whispered, her brow furrowing as she dreamt, and he spun back around to stare at her open mouthed. She was dreaming about him?

After all the crap that she'd gone through today, she was dreaming about him. It probably shouldn't have, but that thought alone brought a small smile to his face.. which quickly disappeared when he heard her next words;

"Eric? No, Eric, please, please don't go.." Her face crumpled, and her hand clutched at the white blanket covering her. He crossed the room and deposited himself in the green plastic chair (one of the hospital ones that, in his meagre opinion, were made to become unbearably hard and awkward after more than fifteen minutes spent in them; all part of a hospital ploy to shorten the time people spent with the patients.) that was next to Gracie's bed. His body propelled into auto- pilot, and his hand was suddenly smoothing Gracie's soft brown hair out of her face, his other hand finding hers, his digits weaving themselves between her own slender fingers. His heart felt a sharp pang of regret, remembering what it felt like to be able to do this every time he saw her- and with her conscious.

Not only that, but to hear her upset over him, even if it was only in a dream, was enough to tear away at his already tarnished heart a little more.

"Please," She whispered, grabbing his hand, "Please, don't leave me, don't leave me alone again..."

"It's alright," He whispered, trying in a futile attempt to sooth her- and himself. "I'm here, I'm here now. I won't leave, I promise, I'll never let you go again." He gently rubbed her hand with his thumb, her tiny whimpers quietening to almost non existent snuffles, until the only sound left in the room were the sounds of her heavy, even breathing. He spent a few minutes in silence, watching her frame move slowly up and down with each breathe, wondering how such a powerful, confident woman could suddenly seem so fragile and small. His thoughts were interrupted by the door creaking open, and he turned to see the face of the nurse who had let him in.

"Sir," She said quietly, "It's been ten minutes." He smiled sadly and nodded to her, getting up from his seat and reluctantly letting Gracie's hand go. He bent down, and after hesitating for a moment, placed a quick kiss on her forehead.

"Bye," He whispered, smiling slightly at the sleeping woman. "I'll be back tomorrow."

He left the room, to find the nurse waiting for him, a knowing smile on her face.

"Visiting hours start at 10:30 tomorrow, Sir, but we're expecting some journalist in tomorrow to try and get something from Miss Hart about the incident today. It's probably going to get extremely crowded." He sighed, knowing how hard it would be to get to see her through all of the media, with or without his badge. "But," The nurse said, giving him an encouraging smile, "If you could get here by about 9:45, I'll see what I can do." He grinned at her.

"I'll be here."

A few hours later, Gracie woke up. She smiled, remembering her dream of a warm hand in hers, soothing words and a soft kiss on her forehead. She found herself hoping that Eric might come back to see her, wishing that he would.

Eric Matthews lay awake, counting the minutes until he could go and see Gracie- and hopefully try and explain things to her a little. Maybe she'd give him a second chance. It was all he could hope for right now.

Brenda Mackay wasn't used to being on the night shift at the hospital. She sat in the reception, the room silent except for the sound of her pen rapping the desk every few seconds, or the occasional bored sigh. It was a little before 3 am before she fell asleep.

She was completely oblivious to the four men slipping through the front doors and past her desk, down the corridor and up the staircase to the forth floor.

The next morning, Eric was greeted with mayhem when he got to the hospital at approximately twenty five minutes to ten. There were hospital workers running around looking for this and that, and over by the desk, he saw a woman in her fifties being interviewed by two policemen in crisp uniform. He pushed his way through the crowd to another policeman by the door, and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, but what's going on here?" The policeman shook his head regretfully.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I can't divulge that information to the public right now." Eric sighed, reaching into his back pocket of his jeans and pulling out his badge. He flipped it open in front of the guy's face.

"Agent Matthews, FBI. I'm gonna need you to tell me what's going on." He narrowed his eyes. "Now." The policeman nodded, and gestured for Eric to follow him out into the corridor.

"Sorry, it's best to talk in here where we won't be overheard by any of the public- or the media, for that matter." He glanced around nervously, checking that they were alone before he continued, "Last night, at around 4 am, we had a break in. We were short staffed with security, and we were missing our usual night time receptionist."

"What was stolen?" Eric asked, and the policeman grimaced.

"It's not so much a case of what was stolen, but who. Last night, Gracie Hart was kidnapped."

Hehe. Cliffie. :) Please review, but, you know, no pressure. I'm hardly going to chase you down with a power drill. That's just reserved for flamers.

Thanks for reading! Ok, so, yeah.. it's been a while. Sorry about that! But this a rather long chapter, and one that was really hard to write. Grrr. I hate damn writer's block. I'll try and make the wait a little shorter between this and the next chapter, though I can't promise or guarantee any thing. Sorry! Oh, and I apologize for the futile attempt at humour at the beginning- I tried to lighten this chapter as the next few will probably be a bit more dramatic and angsty.

Enjoy:)